Adding a link element to a template

You add a link element to an authoring template when you want the link element to be used by a set of items that use the same authoring template.

  1. Open or create an authoring template.
  2. Click Manage Elements .
  3. Select Link as the element type.
  4. Enter a name. Do not use double-byte and non-ASCII characters.
  5. Enter a display title to use as the title of the element displayed indexes and forms.
  6. If you have created a text provider plug-in for a multi-locale site, you can also select the text provider and enter a key to look up a string from the selected text provider. The text provider displays a different display title for each language it has been configured for. The text entered in the Display Title field is only used if an appropriate display title is not available from the selected text provider, or if the text provider is not available.
  7. Click OK. The link element is added to your form.
  8. Go to the link element you created. You create a link, or leave the link element fields blank if you want your content creators to select a link.
  9. Either click Browse Content to select a content item, file resource component, image component or link component to link to, or enter a URL in the URL field. The inserted URL is rendered relative to the URL of the site area of the currently rendered content item. Internet protocols, such as "http://" should be added at the beginning of the inserted link if an absolute URL is intended to be rendered.
  10. Select a link display type:
    Text
    You select this to display the link as text.
    • Use name of linked item: You select this to use the title of the item being linked to as the link text.
    • Link text: Enter the text to use as the link text. To enter text you must unselect Use name of linked item.
    Image Component
    You select this to display the link as an image. Click Select Image to select an image component to use as the link image.
  11. Enter a description of the link by selecting either:
    Use description of linked item
    You select this to use the description of the item being linked to as the link description.
    Enter description
    You select this to enter the text to use as the link description. To enter a description you must unselect Use description of linked item.
  12. Select a link target:
    Name
    You select this to specify the name of the link target.
    New Window
    You select this to open the link in a new browser window.
    None
    Select this to specify no link target.
    Parent
    You select this to open the link in the parent frameset of the frame the link appears in, replacing the entire frameset.
    Self
    You select this to open the link in the current frame, replacing the content in that frame.
    Top
    You select this to open the link in the current browser window, replacing all frames.
  13. Enter additional attributes, such as style sheet classes or javascript. These are used as if entering an attribute in a "<a href=" "></a>" tag. For example:
    • To create the link tag , <a class="classname" href="http://www.ibm.com"></a> you would enter class="classname" in the Additional attributes field.
    • To create the link tag , <a name="homepage" class="classname" href="http://www.ibm.com"></a> you would enter name="homepage" class="classname" in the Additional attributes field.
  14. Click properties to open the display properties of the element. This is where you define how the element is displayed on the item form.
    1. To display the element as a required field select Identify this as a required field.
    2. To hide a field on the content form from all users select Hide field. You must specify a default value if the field is a required field.
      Note: Administrators and managers can choose to display hidden fields and elements in an item by clicking Show hidden fields.
    3. Type the number of characters to use in Field Width to set the size of the displayed field. If you leave this blank, the default field size is used.
    4. Type a number into the maximum or minimum characters or words fields to set limits on the number of characters or words a user can enter in a field.
    5. Select the users or groups you want to grant edit access to a field or element by clicking Add Editors.
    6. Select the users or groups you want to grant view access to a field or element by clicking Add Viewers.
    7. Type field-specific help into Field help text. This displays with the element in the content form.

      If you have created a text provider plug-in for a multi-locale site, you can also select the text provider and enter a key to look up a string from the selected text provider. The text provider displays a different help text for each language it has been configured for. The text entered in the Field help field will then only be used if an appropriate help text is not available from the selected text provider, or if the text provider is not available.

  15. Save the authoring template.
Parent topic: Using a link element